Pretty Packages (21 page)

Beverlyn looked doubtful. “How do I know that you’re not going to dump Kenny when a pretty boy with a fatter wallet comes along?”

“First of all, I
dumped
a pretty boy with a fat wallet to get back with Kenny. Secondly, I’m willing to prove that I’m in this for the long haul to him and everyone else with reasonable doubts about me.”

Giada paused from her task and looked Beverlyn straight in the eye. “Thirdly, I love Kenny with all my heart. I love how he loves me, despite my past.”

“So he
does
know about you being a gold digger?”

“Yes. He seemed to pick that up right away. He was the first man that ever made me want to abandon that lifestyle. That made me want something deeper with a man.” Giada smiled. “Kenny was also the first man to ever make me scream in ecstasy. I don’t know about you, but a woman just don’t let go of a man like that all willy-nilly. And if she foolishly does, she better wise up like I did and do whatever it takes to get her man back.”

Beverlyn burst out laughing, instantly causing the tension in the room to flee. “I can see one reason Kenny loves you. Your honesty is adorable. It makes you even more beautiful.” She stood up and hugged Giada. “I wish the two of you all the best.”

“Thanks, Beverlyn,” Giada said, feeling as if she’d found a big sister of her own.

“Call me Bev. All my other
friends
do.”

That comment produced another warm hug, one initiated by Giada this time.

* * * *

When Giada made it out to the lighted pool,
Kentucky
was already making laps across it. Sal was at the grill playing chef. Classical music streamed from invisible speakers.

Kentucky
stopped swimming midlap when he saw a laughing Giada and Beverlyn emerge from the house together. Their laughter didn’t give him room for pause. Giada’s swimsuit did that all on its own.

Though the swimsuit was a one-piece, there were so many openings that it looked like a bikini. That suit had a halter top, a deep plunge that reached all the way to Giada’s belly button, and large slits on the sides.

Kentucky
heaved a sigh of relief that the swimsuit didn’t have a thong back and did cover most of Giada’s bottom. Yet the parts that did hang out were highly accented by her sensual walk in those stiletto sandals.

Kentucky
’s body instantly hardened, despite the cold water he was in. Oh, how he needed his woman. He needed her
right
now.

“Giada!”
Kentucky
yelled, instantly drawing more than just her attention his way.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Giada asked.

“That swimsuit,”
Kentucky
said in a lower tone, conscious of all eyes on him now. He swam to the edge of the pool.

“You don’t like it?” Giada looked down at herself. “Do I need to change into something else? I brought a bikini with me, too.”

Kentucky
shook his head. “No, don’t change a thing, baby.” He grinned. “As for that suit, I think I like it a bit too much. But I may need to see it up close to make sure, though.”

Everyone laughed. Sal turned back to his task. Beverlyn went over to join him.

Giada walked over to
Kentucky
. “Is this close enough?”

“Nope.
This
is.”
Kentucky
grabbed her legs and snatched her into the pool.

With her shoes flying off her feet, a shrieking Giada went tumbling headfirst toward the water. Yet instead of hitting the water, she landed safely in
Kentucky
’s arms.

“I’m going to get you for that,” she threatened, trying to get her bearings back with deep breaths.

“Get me now,”
Kentucky
replied, giving her a heated look as he released his hold and allowed her to slide down his aroused body.

“I . . .” Giada paused to moan as special parts of her body came in contact with special parts of his.

“People are around, Kenny,” she whispered, wrapping her arms and legs about his neck and waist.

“They won’t be for long,”
Kentucky
whispered back. “In a few minutes, Sal is gonna close the top of the grill, close the vents halfway, and then let the steaks cook slowly. Then he’s gonna find some reason to talk to his wife alone in the house.”

“How do you know all this?” Giada said, still talking discreetly.

“Ever since we got here, Sal’s been talking my ear off about how he just got back today from a two-week trip to
Atlanta
for that new club they’re opening. About how he hasn’t had a chance to recoup the time he lost with his wife. About how he hopes he won’t seem like a bad host if they sneak away for a quickie.”

Giada grinned. “They’re still at it like that after twenty years?”

“Yes, which is why they probably lasted so long.”

“I want us to be like that, Kenny.”

“At the rate we’re going, we probably will.”
Kentucky
squeezed her bottom. “I can’t seem to get enough of you.”

Giada moaned. “I feel the same way, baby.”

Suddenly they heard Sal say, “Kenny and Giada, Bev and I will be right back. We need to take care of something in the house. No need to worry about the steaks. I have them slow cooking.”

“No problem. We’ll be fine out here by ourselves,”
Kentucky
said, giving Giada a knowing smile.

When the Delfinos were gone, Giada said, “I
definitely
want us to be just like them twenty years from now.”

“Let’s start now,”
Kentucky
said, lowering his lips to hers for a kiss.

Their make-out session might have started in the pool, but it ended up in the Delfinos’ Jacuzzi.

Maneuvering around their swimwear,
Kentucky
smoothly joined them to the hilt. They both moaned from the pleasure.

“I wanted to take you like this that night in the boat’s Jacuzzi,”
Kentucky
said, bending forward to whisper in Giada’s ear as he began to slowly stroke her to ecstasy. His hands were around her torso, teasing her taut peaks through the deep frontal plunge in her swimsuit.

“I wanted you to take me,” Giada replied, grinding against his every thrust. For leverage, she held on to the side of the Jacuzzi.

“I couldn’t, baby. If I had, I would’ve never been able to let you to go back to his cabin,”
Kentucky
said, referring to someone whose name he hated to even speak these days, especially at times like these. “You would have been in my cabin from that night forward, which would have caused all kinds of problems on the high seas.”

“I wanted to be in your cabin from day one. Even when I was with him, I always fantasized about making love to you instead,” Giada said, not speaking Fabian’s name either. She paused to moan as
Kentucky
became more forceful with his thrusts. “Even still, it wasn’t the same. There’s nobody like you, Kenny. Nobody.”

“You got that right. You also got the real thing now, baby.”
Kentucky
thrust against her hard again, causing her to moan louder. “What are you gonna do about it?”

Giada looked back over her shoulder at that challenge. “Oh, it’s like that, huh?”

“It’s
just
like that,”
Kentucky
replied, thrusting again.

* * * *

Accepting his challenge, Giada turned back around and gripped the edge of the Jacuzzi tighter. Then she began to work her hips in a circular rhythm that snatched a loud growl from
Kentucky
’s lips within seconds.

“Oh, so you trying to tame a man, huh?” he said, closing the small space between them. “I got something for that.”

“Bring it,” Giada challenged, meeting his hot gaze head-on as she grinded against him again.

What did she ever say that for?

Kentucky
brought it all. Holding her close, he began to bombard her body with moves she didn’t even know he knew. Where did he get them from? Had they come out of some locked vault? If so, where was this vault? And what was the access code to get inside?

Giada relented first. She simply couldn’t control the clenching in her core. Nor could she control the tingles of pleasure ricocheting through her body.

As if he knew she was about to go over the edge,
Kentucky
immediately captured Giada’s lips in a deep kiss in order to muffle her inevitable scream. She released it thirty seconds later like clockwork.

After swallowing her scream in his mouth,
Kentucky
went over the edge himself soon thereafter.

“You win,” Giada panted out as she collapsed against him a few seconds later.

“We
both
win,”
Kentucky
replied still holding her close to him as their breathing patterns regulated.

“Kenny?”

“Yes, baby?”

“Where are the Delfinos? Seems like they should have been back by now.”

Suddenly they heard a loud scream of ecstasy coming from an open window of an upstairs bedroom.

“I think that answers your question,”
Kentucky
said as they both turned toward the sound with a grin.

Looks like I’m not the only screamer in the bunch,
Giada noted silently, liking Beverlyn even more now that they had that particular trait in common.

Chapter Nineteen

Kentucky
discovered a few new things about Giada on their trip to
Village
Square,
Georgia
. First of all, she had the innate ability to assimilate into any environment. Giada seemed just as comfortable among the teachers who had arrived over that weekend as she did among the lawyers and celebrities she usually associated with.

Secondly, Giada had a real eye for detail. During her tour of the school, she noticed that the nurse’s office didn’t have what she called “rites of passage” packets for newly menstruating girls. This packet would include all the items they would need for this step into womanhood, including a pocket calendar to keep up with their monthly cycles.

Kentucky
took that to heart and asked Giada if she would like to help bring that vision to pass. That request had been like telling Road Runner to run. Giada did what came naturally to her—shopped.

Hitting all the local superstores, she gathered all the necessary items and the decorative boxes they would go in. Soon there were Debutante Boxes stacked high in the storage room of the nurse’s office. All had been personally assembled by Giada. The most surprising thing of all was the fact that she stayed within budget, revealing that she could exercise restraint concerning money when she had to.